India Is Planning To Tax Winners In Online Gaming (qz.com) 30
The Indian government is looking to tax winnings of online games as the sector grows in popularity. Quartz reports: Direct tax officials are scrutinizing the data for up to 58,000 crore rupees ($7.2 billion) won over the past three years on an online gaming platform, The Indian Express newspaper reported. Authorities have urged taxpayers to file taxes on such undeclared winnings for the past two assessment years, 2019-20 and 2020-21, the report said.
"Some may have earned more and some less... They are usually in a ledger account and they merge win and loss, it (data) is humongous," Nitin Gupta, chairman of the Central Board of Direct Taxes, told The Indian Express. More than 20,000 taxpayers have filed updated returns for both 2020-21 and 2021-22 until Sept. 02, with undeclared tax payments valued at over Rs50 crore.
In May, India's finance ministry proposed 28% GST on all earnings from online games, regardless of whether the game is based on skill or chance. The GST council will now review this during its meeting this month. [...] The proposed taxation of 28%, along with 30% income tax on winnings, takes the total tax rate on online gaming between 45-50%, industry experts said. This could spell "game over" for the fledgeling industry.
"Some may have earned more and some less... They are usually in a ledger account and they merge win and loss, it (data) is humongous," Nitin Gupta, chairman of the Central Board of Direct Taxes, told The Indian Express. More than 20,000 taxpayers have filed updated returns for both 2020-21 and 2021-22 until Sept. 02, with undeclared tax payments valued at over Rs50 crore.
In May, India's finance ministry proposed 28% GST on all earnings from online games, regardless of whether the game is based on skill or chance. The GST council will now review this during its meeting this month. [...] The proposed taxation of 28%, along with 30% income tax on winnings, takes the total tax rate on online gaming between 45-50%, industry experts said. This could spell "game over" for the fledgeling industry.
So losses can be deducted too? (Score:2)
Cool!
Re: (Score:2)
Can the tax be paid with in-game currency? The revenooers are going to have fun converting between quatloos and elf gold.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Cool!
This is quite common... e.g. in poker, you'd have a lot of wins and a lot of losses. What matters is the net, which is what you should pay taxes for.
Hmm. (Score:5, Insightful)
In Germany (among other countries) you can buy lottery tickets and they'll be taxed. If you win anything, you get the advertised winnings because the tickets have already been taxed.
In the Netherlands, lottery tickets aren't taxed, but winnings are: Win anything, and you only get 71% of the advertised winnings, and the lottery gives the rest to the taxman.
The income for the state is about the same, but the message to the winners is entirely different.
So now India "is looking into" taxing online winnings. That brings up interesting questions. Whether you can get tax rebates for losses, too, is but one. But even just the message: "You gotta file your winnings so we can tax them!" is a bit of a downer. I'd sooner look into having the online gambling outfits tax on payout, or perhaps on the money you put in to gamble with.
Or, if you insist on having everyone file individually, look at it as normal income, why not?
But then, given that the cumulative taxes proposed are clearly designed to make gambling unprofitable for everyone, the point isn't to get people to file more tax forms. Whether it'll work as intended or instead jut give rise to much more illegal gambling, and so many more excuses to hold raids and make a big show out of cracking down, well, enact the measures and see, eh.
Re: (Score:1, Troll)
The lottery is the tax.
The government keeps half already. Taxing the other half is fraud, the likes of whicb people would scream if a corporation did it.
Re: Hmm. (Score:3)
Re: (Score:1)
The lottery is the tax. The government keeps half already. Taxing the other half is fraud, the likes of whicb people would scream if a corporation did it.
Fraud? You might want to look up the definition of that. It means using deception to take money, not just taking it unfairly. Also, in the US, you can deduct all money you spent on lottery tickets that your off your winnings, so you aren't being taxed twice.
Re: (Score:1)
In the Netherlands, lottery tickets aren't taxed, but winnings are: Win anything, and you only get 71% of the advertised winnings, and the lottery gives the rest to the taxman.
But... but the entire price of the lottery ticket is a tax on mathematically challenged people, and you pay additional tax on top of that?
But this idea of taxing the tickets and not the winner will have great appeal here in the United States. We love taxing the low income low net worth people to give a tax break to the rich people.
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It also changes who pays the tax. A tax on the winnings is paid by the winner, while a tax on the ticket is paid by the losers.
What different message do you see being sent to the winner?
Re: (Score:2)
The number of people who look up the tax laws before buying a lottery ticket is very, very, small.
In the UK you have a choice ... (Score:2)
you can elect to pay tax on your bet and receive the winnings tax free; or you do not pay when you bet but are liable for tax on your winnings. I do not know how it works on lottery type tickets.
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Given if you lived billions of years, you would pay a lot more for tickets than you win from the occasional win every 50 million years, you probably pay more taxes for each ticket than you do on the lump sum.
It's a racket either way for the government, who keeps half off the top, then taxes the other half.
Re: (Score:2)
Can't I just do what the corporations do? Enjoy the benefits of living in a country that is tax funded and in case I make a profit move over to Ireland?
Re: Tax is the power to destroy (Score:3)
Re: Tax is the power to destroy (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Have you ever heard of Las Vegas? It is proof that you are wrong.
Bad headline (Score:4)
They already tax it as income. They plan to tax it twice.
This seems like a cowardly way to effectively ban it.
Both ways (Score:1)
Re: Both ways (Score:1)
India doesn't have legal casinos. This is about online gambling.
Re: (Score:2)
'Winnings' for a casino is revenue. If they have enough revenue to make a profit, they get taxed on that just like every other business.
Is it "industry"? (Score:2)
This could spell "game over" for the fledgeling industry.
The word industry has roots in Latin, industria meaning diligence, hard work. Gambling, on line games etc can hardly be called hard work.
Amateurs (Score:2)
In crypto, losers get taxed, too.